By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | The future of the Democratic Party is dependent on the Party having a clearly spelled out progressive platform, which was sorely lacking in 2016, 2020 and 2024. I’m active on progressive social media sites. A significant number of progressives are turned off by the lack of clear positioning by the national Democratic Party. The national party must motivate them to vote.
The Atlanta City Council passed a resolution to “ensure fiscally feasible and appropriate health care coverage for all residents of the United States.” If they want to control the House in 2026, Democrats must do the same, especially after the Big Beautiful Bill decimates Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage.
Simply attacking Trump as an incompetent buffoon (although true) and his misguided supporters as “deplorables” didn’t work in two of the last three Presidential elections. Simply attacking Trump will not be any more effective in November 2026. Minorities, the young and progressives must have a reason to come out to vote.
The national Democratic party must reverse their refusal to consider “Medicare for All” and end their fallacious fiscally oriented arguments against it. Healthcare is a key issue on the mind of many voters and may be the underlying reason why they vote in a non-presential election year, especially if the Big Bungled Bill passes.
When tens of millions of Americans are either still without healthcare insurance or are underinsured, simply saying we should maintain Medicaid and Obamacare is insufficient to motivate many voters.
Democrats need to aggressively make a two-fold argument for single payer:
- The current system doesn’t work well and needs major change; and
- “Medicare for All” is affordable and less costly in the long run.
Medicare is working well. Meanwhile, both premiums and deductibles are rising rapidly for employees with private insurance, as well as causing a drag on company profits and making us less competitive internationally. That situation will just get worse. The politicians saying Americans don’t want to give up their private insurance ignore these facts at their peril.
On the second point, there is an excellent 2018 economic feasibility study by the University of Mass-Amherst Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) which proves that single payer is cost-effective and financially viable. Savings are projected to come from drops in drug pricing (6 percent) and obvious decreases in overhead costs (9 percent). PERI states that “Medicare for All”… “is not only economically viable but could actually reduce health consumption expenditures by about 9.6 percent.”
This assumption is backed up by OECD reports which have shown that other developed nations with universal coverage have a much lower per capita cost. For example, in 2023 the cost per capita for the States was $13,432, while the cost for England was only $6,023. Many studies indicate that France, my father’s country of origin, has the best healthcare system in the world, yet its per capita cost is only $7,136.
Meanwhile, we spend 17 percent of our gross national product on healthcare while France spends 12 percent. Maybe that’s why our infrastructure is literally collapsing, and our children cannot afford public colleges and universities.
Democrats must push health financing reform… now, before the election, to motivate progressives. National Democratic leadership must get on board ASAP, well before November 2026.
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